Records reveal new details about Upstate murders, suicide

1 DEAD IN GREENVILLE, 3 IN PICKENS COUNTY
Children release balloons for Harper Edens and Hayden King | 2:31

After a short prayers, families and students at Forest Acres Elementary School release balloons with special messages for Hayden King and Harper Edens. They were shot dead and found with their mother.
Maayan Schechter/Staff

The Pickens County Sheriff's Office on Monday released its case file shedding new light on the death of Meredith Rahme at Main+Stone parking garage and capturing the final moments of Jessica Edens, who authorities say killed her own children and Rahme before turning a gun on herself.(Photo: Anna Lee/Staff)Buy Photo

The Pickens County Sheriff's Office on Monday released its case file shedding new light on the death of Meredith Rahme at Main+Stone parking garage and capturing the final moments of Jessica Edens, who authorities say killed her own children and Rahme before turning a gun on herself.

The case file, containing more than 100 pages of incident reports as well as 911 recordings, radio traffic and phone records, was made public in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by The Greenville News.

Rahme, 28, was shot July 13 in the driver's seat of her vehicle on the third floor of the apartment complex's parking garage. Rahme was the girlfriend of Edens' estranged husband, Ben, according to Sheriff's Office records.

They worked together at Michelin and both lived at Main+Stone, according to a coroner's report and court records.

After killing Rahme, Edens placed what would be her final phone call to her husband, the Sheriff's Office said.

Newly obtained records show that Ben was with Greenville police officers when Edens told him: “Everyone you love is gone. Do you hear me? I’m about to be gone too."

When Ben tried to call Edens back, the call went straight to voicemail, according to incident reports.

After leaving the parking garage in Greenville, Jessica Edens drove 7 miles to the Greenville-PIckens Speedway in Easley, where the bodies of Edens and her children, 9-year-old Hayden King and 4-year-old Harper Edens, were later discovered.

Edens, 36, and her children were in her still-running Jeep and had all suffered gunshot wounds, according to Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley.

Three notes — all in Edens’ handwriting — were found inside the Jeep, records say.

One note, “For my parents and sister,” said: “I am so sorry for the pain I am causing all of you. You’ve all always been there for me and I love you all so much. I know what I have done is selfish, but I cannot live with this pain any longer. I just cannot handle it. It is too much. It hurts too much. I will no longer be in pain and my children will no longer hurt either. I am so so sorry. I love you all.”

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Authorities are investigating two related shootings in Greenville and Pickens counties that left four people dead.
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Edens also wrote to her estranged husband.

“You have caused me more pain that I’ve ever been in in my life. You have caused my children pain. I hope you rot one day for what you have done to me and my kids … I hope you live with pain and shame and guilt for the rest of your life," the note said.

A third note was titled, "Last Will and Testament," and was dated July 11, 2017, records show.

The same week as the shootings, Edens and her husband had been involved in a Family Court proceeding that upset her, authorities have said.

Ben Edens said in court filings that he had moved out of their home in April and that their marriage was unloving.

“I slept on the couch for almost the entire time we have been married,” he wrote.

After the Family Court proceedings, Jessica Edens made a decision, authorities said.

"Text messages and other written content clearly indicate that Mrs. Edens developed a plan in the next couple of days that she felt would cause everlasting consequences for her husband," Pickens County Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said in a July 24 written statement.

Numerous texts between the two were redacted in records released Monday.

In his reply to the FOI request filed by The News, Hashe said the phone records were exempt from disclosure because they contained information that would constitute an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy. Also, "the content was extracted from personally owned cell phones via consent and Search Warrant during criminal investigation" and "never introduced at a public trial," Hashe said.

The day before the homicide, Edens drove to her parents' house while they were out of town and stole a .40 caliber handgun her mother legally owned, authorities said.

According to Anderson County court records, Edens' mother and stepfather are Leslie and Mike Mitchell. Mike Mitchell is the chief deputy of the Anderson County Sheriff's Office.

Mike Mitchell later told police that his wife typically carries a Glock 27 in the glovebox of her car and that the gun was moved to a nightstand in his home before they went out of town, records say.

Mitchell also said Edens had asked him for a pistol for protection after Ben moved out but that he hadn't given one to her, according to records.